Meb Wins the Boston Marathon

​Click play above to watch Runner's World post-race one on one with Keflezighi.

Meb Keflezighi gave Boston and America the victory the whole country longed for, but scarcely dared hope for, in the most emotional and significant of all 118 Boston Marathons. He did it with a courage and determination that the whole nation can be proud of. If Boston and America were to find healing from last year's horrific finish-line attack, there could be no better resolution than by an American winning this Boston Marathon (in 2:08:37), and in such a way. Boston today was a field of dreams.

Stride by stride, in one of the most astonishing races in the Boston Marathon's long history, we could hardly believe what we were seeing. Through the early miles, it was Americans doing the work, with Keflezighi, Ryan Hall, and Josphat Boit up front, tagged by one of the most fearsome fields of sub-2:05 men ever assembled. They're kidding, we thought.

In the middle stages, Keflezighi kept it going on steady 2:08 schedule, accompanied by fellow-American Boit (Kenya-born, now from Mammoth Lakes), out on their own, while the big pack drifted 20, then 40 seconds behind. They've got to be kidding, we thought. They must be watching each other, disregarding the impetuous light-weights from USA, biding time to start the real race and gobble them up.

By the Newton hills, we were wondering—how long will they keep on kidding? How long can they wait, with a runner as experienced as Keflezighi so far out of sight? Keflezighi wanted 2:08, and simply ran for that, regardless of what the more feared and fancied stars were doing.

“I was comfortable out front. Before the race, I told Coach (Bob) Larsen I was going to draft, even in a tailwind. But I wanted a PR. You have to engage. I knew the course and I wanted an honest pace,” Keflezighi said.

Aiming at even pace or negative splits, he passed halfway in 64:21, right on schedule to improve on his PR 2:09:08. A little after halfway he dropped Boit.

“Josphat was helping maintain the pace. He's an improving guy. But then I felt him drift a little, and I always enjoy running by myself,” Keflezighi said.

He put his head down on the uphills, he picked up the cadence on the downs.

“Boston is the perfect course for a good cross-country runner. I can run uphill and downhill. I used them all. And being on my own I could take the tangents, and I could use the press truck,” he revealed.

And he kept on moving away. At 25K, he was 57 seconds ahead. At 30K, when we thought they surely must start the pursuit, he was away by 1:20.

“Come and catch us!” Keflezighi was thinking, he told us later.

Where were they? What was happening? Very little, it emerged. This pack of five sub-2:05 men, seven sub-2:06s, this phalanx of highly-paid professionals with 14 major marathon victories among them, couldn't find one with the initiative or the racing instinct to start the chase. I suppose they figured a guy who came into the race ranked 16th on fastest times, and who won his Olympic silver medal when most of them were in high school (2004) wasn't to be taken seriously.

“We ran like a big group. We were little bit scared to follow because we knew there were really tough hills to come. We thought we were going to catch him at 35K. But at 35K I was seeing nothing—only the straight road,” runner-up Wilson Chebet said.

Age and cunning will always defeat youth and power, goes the proverb, and with the addition of Keflezighi's superior courage, that was the story of today's Boston Marathon. There hasn't been a screw-up like this by the main pack since the Olympic women's field all nodded off when Constantina Dita made her disregarded move to win the gold medal in 2008.

It got worse. One by one in the second half, they faded away. Defending champion Lelisa Desisa and joint-favorite Dennis Kimetto were off the course before 40K. Gebre Gebremariam went before that. Tilahun Regassa (PR 2:05:27) and Shami Dawud (PR 2:05:42) were also DNFs. Of five highly-touted Ethiopians, only one finished, Markos Geneti in fifth. The kindest thing you can say is that Boston isn't Dubai. Of other big names, April Lusapho (third at New York, 2013) finished 15th, Micah Kogo (second at Boston 2013) 17th, Ryan Hall 20th.

Whatever the reasons for so many disappointing performances, it for sure wasn't that the early pace was too fast. The following group (you can't accurately call them a chase pack) went through halfway in 65 minutes. That's scarcely tempo-run pace for runners with 2:03 to 2:05 PRs.

So as Keflezighi kept the pace honest, and as news from the pack became more and more delayed, now we began to believe. Keflezighi was giving us a display of sheer craft. It was like watching a great artist at work, a marathon runner of consummate skill and mental focus. He did it all right—every tangent, every drink, and above all every uphill and every down.

“Coach Larsen always says 'technique, technique, technique,' so I was working on form,” Keflezighi said.

He shot a couple quick glances behind, probably as incredulous as we were to see nothing but empty road. The master tactician, even in such a void of a lead, he was giving himself every foot of road from the pursuers, fearing perhaps, as we were, that he was going to need it.

At 23 miles, suddenly he did need it. It seemed to happen suddenly that Wilson Chebet was visible, though Chebet started the serious chasing at 35K. Now Keflezighi's giant 1:20 lead was a vulnerable one of less than 20 seconds. Chebet must have been flying. Almost immediately it was 16 seconds, then 12 seconds.

Meb's toast, we thought, sadly. When Frankline Chepkwony came into sight as well, it seemed that Kenya was reclaiming its own.

But no, it's our own, Keflezighi and the whooping crowds were thinking. Never, as has been said so often, write off Meb. His legs looked weary, he took some glances behind, he almost threw up, but he kept on cranking out miles in the 4:47-4:56 range.

“Towards the end I was a little bit nervous. The last two miles were a challenge. I kept thinking, 'Save something, save something!' I prayed a lot. And I thought about how important it is this year. 'Boston strong, Boston strong, Meb strong, Meb strong!' I was thinking.”

Coming to Commonwealth Avenue, with those sharp little climbs out of the road tunnels, he was working but never faltering.

“I run to get the best from myself. I'm a competitor,” he said.

Timing the gap to Chebet was a kind of silent drama: 12 seconds, 9 seconds, 8 seconds, 7 seconds, 6.8 seconds, 8 seconds, 8 seconds, 8 seconds...He was holding! Chebet was suffering—starting the real pursuit so late, and alone, he had to chase so hard that he ran the 23rd mile in 4:31. That's brilliant running, but it cost him. At 25 miles, you could see him struggling on a small uphill. Chepkwony was making little impact. Keflezighi was going to do it!

Around the final corner into Boylston Street, he crossed himself, and committed to the last minutes of unrelenting effort. Whatever we say about the dream script, and however we feel about the emotion of this most timely American victory, this was above all a runner showing how a runner can get the best from himself. To put it simply, he ran a six-second negative split, impeccable pace-judgment.

“I have an Olympic medal. I won New York. Before today I felt my career was 90% accomplished. There was one gap. Now I've won Boston, and I feel 110% accomplished,” Keflezighi said.

At age 38, after a career of 20 years, at the end of a long lonely race when by all the rules he should have faded, crumpled, been passed, and left to find consolation in fourth or fifth, Meb Keflezighi kept running to win. His resolve never faltered. Neither did his discipline or his focused skill. However many strides this marathon took him, he never put a foot wrong.

America and Boston will justly claim this performance. But it was Meb Strong as well as Boston Strong. It was the race of a man without the supreme natural talent of several of his rivals, yet who beat them—thrashed the daylights out of most of them— by simply using every drop of ability, skill, and racing intelligence. You can't ask more. Today, Meb Keflezighi was the ultimate runners' runner.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Runner's World participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.